Beau Jackson

On Saturday, we traveled to Monett, Missouri (well, a little South of there actually) to pick up two goats.  Yes, I guess that makes me a goatherd as well as a shepherd.  Total mental jump here for just a sec - how come “shepherd” isn’t spelled “sheepherd”??? Ok, back to what I was saying.  Actually, I’m not a goatherd.  Dominic is a goatherd, and to a lesser extent Elizabeth is too.

Dominic is participating in the goat project in 4H this year - dairy goats in our case, although a lot of kids raise meat goats.  Now, I’ll confess that he was forced encouraged to take on this project, but in theory he will be taking care of the goats - feeding, giving shots, hoof trimming, milking, the works.  Elizabeth will help to the extent she’s able - she really likes feeding them of course, and she’s actually old enough to learn how to milk them.  I imagine I’ll have to help some, so maybe I’m a goatherd too.

So why was Dominic “encouraged” to take on this project?  Simple economics.  We drink a lot of milk.  If we don’t limit our kids milk consumption, we can quite easily consume a gallon of milk a day.  In my area, milk currently costs $3.75 - $4.25 depending on what grocery store you happen to be in.  Do the math.  Trust me when I say that it does not cost anywhere near $3.75 a day to keep a goat.  If the feed and other costs of keeping a goat worked out to be five bucks a week, I’d be truly surprised.

So why goats?  Why not get a cow?  Again, simple economics.  We bought two goats - both heavy producers and from very good bloodlines and both bred for March kidding - for $300.  A cow, especially a grown cow that is already bred, costs a LOT more than $300.  And frankly, even though we drink a lot of milk, I don’t think we could keep up with a cow.  At peak, these two goats should give us a gallon of milk a day each - maybe a little more.  So, we’re planning on making cheese too, and even still we’ll  probably have more than we can consume ourselves.  A cow can give four to six gallons a day (depending on the breed).  Another reason to pick goats over a cow:  Our kids will be milking these animals.  A cow can, quite literally, cave your head in with a well placed kick, or step on your foot and crush it.  A goat can kick you, or step on your foot, and mostly it’s going to hurt but not be damaging.

Yeah, but goats?  Who drinks goat milk?  Well, it turns out we have a friend that has a goat.  She’s an elderly lady from Europe and grew up drinking the stuff, so she keeps a goat.  We tried it and found that it has a very nice taste - very similar to cows milk, only I find it to be a little sweeter.  We’ve also tried goat cheese before and found it very tasty!  (I’m just crackers about cheese, Grommet!)

So anyway, now we’ve added goats to our three ring ranch.  The circus just keeps growing!

We got to do a neat thing last night. We participated in a walk through nativity scene. This was not our church that put this on - but we got a call a couple of weeks ago from them because we have sheep. So we brought a couple of our sheep, and Allena dressed up as a shepherdess. Dominic ended up being drafted into being a wise man, since they had a last minute no-show.

There weren’t a lot of people that showed up (’cause hey, it was cold!) but it was neat all the same. probably 65-70 percent of the people that did show up were kids and they got a big kick out of the sheep. All in all a fun evening.

Update: Here are some pictures (I found the camera!)

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - Jesus was played by a doll in this case because it was pretty cold out ;)

Dominic is on the right

Allena is the shepherd, and the little girl is playing an Angel (that appeared to the shepherds of course!)

We’ve been enjoying the ice storm for the past few days.  We haven’t had power since Sunday at around 2:00 in the afternoon.  Our phone was out yesterday too.  Having everyone sleep in the same room will keep the room warm enough to be comfortable, but when your one-year-old wakes up at 3:30am and decides it’s play time (he demonstrated this be jumping on his sleeping sisters), then sleeping is tough even if you are warm.  Maybe the power will be back on today.

I just wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of Allena. She wrote a FANTASTIC article on dyeing with food color that got published on knitty.com.

My son William turned one year last month.  I’m thinking of giving him a new name.  There’s nothing wrong with “William”, it’s just that I think he should have a name that reflects his personality and skills more appropriately.  I’m thinking I may rename him “Monkey Boy”.  Yes…”Monkey Boy Jackson” has a nice ring to it don’t you think?

You see, William Monkey Boy is a climber.  He climbs everything - just throws caution to the wind and goes for it.  I’ve removed him from the kitchen table three times this morning, and it’s not even 9:30am yet.

Monkey Boy is also notorious for the mischief he gets into.  He likes to play in the toilet…splash, splash, splash!  What fun!  I managed to stop him from doing that this morning in the nick of time.  He alerted me to his plans by banging the toilet seat a few times first.

Monkey Boy has long monkey arms.  He uses these long arms for reaching up and grabbing glasses with small amounts of liquid left in them from the counter or the edge of the table.  He likes to dump this liquid on his head.   Unattended bowls of oatmeal are also lots of fun!

So, until he begins to display some new dominant qualities or talents, I think that Monkey Boy shall be his name.